Greg Schiano's take on Rutgers' latest football coaching staff moves

Noah Addis/The Star-LedgerGreg Schiano realized over time he was delegating more and more to his defensive staff.

For the second straight year, Rutgers football has undergone a major staff shakeup. The difference this time is that head coach Greg Schiano has promoted from within, naming Kirk Ciarrocca (wide receivers) and Kyle Flood (offensive line, run game coordinator) as co-offensive coordinators on Tuesday.

In a surprising concurrent announcement, Schiano also relinquished his added responsibilities as defensive coordinator he has held since 2005, elevating Bob Fraser (linebackers) and Ed Pinkham (secondary) to co-defensive coordinator status.

Last year's staff featured five first-year assistants -- all hired from the outside -- in running backs coach Gary Brown, Ciarrocca, defensive line coach Gary Emanuel, Pinkham and special teams coordinator Chris Rippon. Brown left this month to become running backs coach for the Cleveland Browns. Ciarrocca and Flood replace John McNulty, who left as Rutgers' offensive coordinator to become the wide receivers coach for the Arizona Cardinals.

Here's what Schiano had to say about the latest staff changes:

What went into your decision to relinquish your defensive coordinator duties?

"I feel very comfortable with our entire defensive staff, and as time went on I was delegating more and more and I just felt like this was the time to officially name Bob and Ed. It's going to allow me to be involved in all areas, defense included. But (also) be more involved in the kicking game and on offense. You guys know I'm pretty involved as it is. This will give me more time to do some other things as a head coach that I've wanted to do and I found myself stretched to be able to do."

Will there be any change in philosophy on offense or defense?

"No. One of the things that I love about our program is we, collectively, sought a vision. Certainly there's got to be one guy who leads it and that's going to be me in the end. And we kind of worked to achieve that. So we believe in the same things and have been refining the defense since we put it in in 2005 and I think these guys will do a great job and Gary Emanuel and Chris Hewitt (cornerbacks coach) will continue to do a great job too. So I'm excited about where we're headed."

Does this mean you will place an emphasis on the offensive meetings as well now?

"I did that anyway, but it will give me more time. The thing that is tricky about gameplanning is it all has to happen between Sunday and Tuesday -- or the great majority of it at least. So it's really a cram and when you're directly responsible for some things it prohibits you from being able to oversee a bunch of things as well as I want to and I think this will give me a chance to do that."

What type of things will it allow you more time to oversee?

"All things. Recruiting, dealing with our players in general. If you're tied to a meeting room table and that job has to get done at a certain time there's less time you can do things in other areas, whether it's recruiting, our current players, development of our current players. You only have so many hours in a day and there are a lot of things that I felt I should be doing. But now I'm reaching the point where I feel comfortable. As I said, each year I delegate more and more, so it's really not going to be a heck of a lot different than it was a year ago."

Did the 1-5 start this past season with all the new assistants factor into this decision at all?

"No. Obviously everything, all your experiences, help blend into your decision-making, but speaking on the defensive side, that all along, I didn't take over the defense thinking that I would do it forever. I think I may have even said that, I'm not sure. I just feel comfortable that now is the time to do it. Offensively, I'm really excited with what we're doing with Kirk and Kyle. They've been together both here and Delaware and been successful both places.

"Doing co-cordinators only works if you have the right two people. And in this case we have the right two people on offense and the right two people on defense, so it's something that I'm really excited about."

Ciarrocca and Flood bring different strengths -- Ciarrocca in the pass game, Flood in the run game. Is that one of the reasons you want them to share this role?

"Yeah, I think their skill sets mesh really well together. They're great team guys, so I don't worry about ego or any of those things. Like I said, you can't always do that. If you couldn't do it, it wouldn't mean that anyone is at fault. It has to be the right situation and I think these two guys are the right fit to do it and certainly, just by the nature of the positions they've coached, their expertise is in different areas, so that helps."

Ultimately on game day only one guy can do the play calling. Who will it be on the two sides?

"I don't agree wholeheartedly with that. A lot of our gameplanning gets done in the office during the week by down and distance, by field zone -- all those things. How that plays out on game day, I think is going to vary and I think I'm going to be interjected there in certain areas as well.

"A large percentage of what we call has been called in the calmness and the serenity of our staff meeting rooms with all of the information in front of us and then we go out and execute it on game day. Now, that's not to say there's not some gut-feel calls that go in. Really, the way we do it -- and I'm not saying that's the way everybody does it -- I thought Kyle and John (McNulty) has great communication when it was run-pass type of deals and Kirk was involved in that pass decision-making from up top. The whole offensive staff works very well. How it's determined, we're going to work through that. I'm not very concerned about that."

Ciarrocca's ability to develop quarterback Joe Flacco into the 18th pick in last year's NFL Draft -- how important was that in promoting him, especially with two young quarterbacks in D.C. Jefferson and Tom Savage on the roster this fall?

"I think Kirk is an excellent quarterback coach and I think it's always important, whether you have young ones that are really at the beginning stages or you have a guy that's experienced and how much further can we take him? I am excited about Kirk coaching the quarterbacks because I have witnessed his coaching the quarterbacks and I've been very impressed, and in the short time we've been talking about this been very impressed.

"And sure, it doesn't hurt that the last quarterback you worked with was the 18th guy drafted. Players like to see that as well."

You still have one fill-time position to fill on the staff. Will that be on the offensive side or on defense?

"You know, I'm still working on that. I'm not sure how we're going to do that. Certainly I can't wait too much longer because we going to start practicing (on March 10). there's a lot going on here and I want to make sure that I do the right thing and do make a mistake based on time. But I think somewhere here in the next week or so we should get this thing finalized and be ready to kick it off on the 10th."